


Looking Up

by musicforswimming



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Community: femslash_minis, Dubious Consent, F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-07
Updated: 2010-05-07
Packaged: 2017-10-09 19:23:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/90696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicforswimming/pseuds/musicforswimming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darla's in a bad mood, and she needs someone to take it out on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brutti_ma_buoni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brutti_ma_buoni/gifts).



> Set after Darla's last scene in "Epiphany". Written for brutti_ma_buoni in the [femslash_minis](http://community.livejournal.com/femslash_minis) Darla round. Her prompts were "Partners in 'crime', chill, elevator", and I hope she likes it.

"You failed us," Lilah says, when the elevator door opens. It's a credit to Lilah that she manages to keep her back straight and her feet planted on the elevator's floor, considering the last time they saw each other. She looks to Darla, then to the buttons, goes for them, even, but whatever she might think of herself she's only human, after all, and Darla is too quick, stepping in and grabbing hold of her wrist easily.

"You weren't quite such a talker last time I saw you. Working late?" she asks, and doesn't bother listening for an answer, but Lilah doesn't offer one anyway, so it doesn't matter. She, the lawyers, their plans -- none of it matters anymore -- none of it ever mattered. Darla got lost along the way and forgot that, and now she's determined to remind herself of it. Her world. She matters. Maybe Drusilla, if she ever stumbles out from whatever corner she's tucked herself into this time. She's fed tonight, and now there is a burn in her gut, the burn of dissatisfaction.

Lilah is all sharp lines and angles, not like Drusilla and not like Darla used to be -- all the women here are, and the men too. Darla has seen fashions come and go, but round has always been in for women, curves, not angles. It's taken her time to get used to; it was strange in the 60s when skinny was in but it was the worst in the 80s, and she's still not used to it, entirely. But it's not just the women here, of course; it's an entire building ready to slice you open and see what it can do with what's inside, so even if Darla can't stand the woman, she respects that she could, potentially, be dangerous.

Could have, anyway. Once, maybe.

"Security," Lilah begins, and Darla cuts her off with a snap of her teeth. She's not in full vampire mode, even, it's just playful, more than this woman deserves which is why Darla does it, but Lilah flinches anyway. More than flinches, jumps, the fear writ large on her face.

"You've got less self-preservation instinct than I thought," Darla tells her, putting an arm around her waist and drawing her close. She reeks of fear -- science would probably tell her that it's not fear, just adrenaline, some other chemical, but Darla has never been much a one for science. It's delicious, and after a truly awful night, Darla takes what she can get, breathes in the smell and snaps her teeth again and laughs a little, softly, sliding a thigh in between Lilah's and pinning her more closely to the elevator wall.

Something changes, just the slightest bit -- there is the smallest shift in the way Lilah's muscles are tightening, the tiniest change to the smell of her, and Darla grins. She used to do this for a living, after all. "What's your game now?" Lilah asks. "We might be able to -- "

"Oh, honey," Darla says, and snaps at her again, her teeth closing just above the warmth of Lilah's skin. Lilah's still terrified, but there's a shudder that runs through her, and Darla may not be able to breathe warm air on her ear, but she stands on her toes anyway and whisper with cool breath her next: "You could never play _my_ game."

Lilah doesn't move to meet Darla's kiss, but she doesn't close her mouth against it, either, and Darla grins and kisses her again. Lilah can't disguise now that she's breathing hard, and her body's warming Darla's beyond the chill of the air conditioner (God, if they'd had air conditioner in Virginia).

She'd wanted a bloodbath -- that's usually her quickest cure for the blues -- but this will do in a pinch.


End file.
